Calibration of haptic devices

• US 10,353,467 B2
• Filed: 02/18/2016
• Issued: 07/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Augenbergs, Peteris K., Piche, Marc J., Chawda, Vinay, Wells, Nicole M., McEuen, Scott J., Wiederhold, Curtis P., Harley, Jonah A., Westerman, Wayne C., Bernstein, Jeffrey T., Degner, Brett W., Briant, Paul, Wedlick, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Mercedes, Dismery
• Application Number:
  US15/047,447
• Publication Number:
  US 20160259480A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,244 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/285 Generating tactile feedback signals via the game input device, e.g. force feedback
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1037 being specially adapted for converting control signals received from the game device into a haptic signal, e.g. using force feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G01L 3/22 electrically or magnetically actuated
• CPC Class Codes: G01L 5/0028 Force sensors associated with force applying means G01L5/0052, G01L5/0057, G01L5/0061 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/16 Constructional details or arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/015 Force feedback applied to a joystick
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04105 Pressure sensors for measuring the pressure or force exerted on the touch surface without providing the touch position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04142 the force sensing means being located peripherally, e.g. disposed at the corners or at the side of a touch sensing plate

Abstract

Disclosed herein are methods and systems for providing haptic output and audio output on computing devices using the same haptic device and methods for calibrating the same. To produce the haptic and audio output, the computing device receives a profile of a desired output waveform that is to be provided by the haptic device. Using the desired output waveform, an input waveform is generated. Once the input waveform that will produce the desired output waveform is generated, the input waveform may be calibrated to account for various structural components of the haptic device and may also be combined with an audio waveform. The input waveform is then provided to the haptic device.

Claims

1. A method of calibrating a haptic device, the method comprising:

receiving at a controller of the haptic device one or more respective characteristics of each of a plurality of input waveforms, wherein distortions in the haptic device cause the haptic device to generate a haptic output different from a desired haptic output;

determining respective current profiles associated with each of the plurality of input waveforms having the respective characteristics;

applying, by the controller, the current profiles to a haptic actuator of the haptic device to produce respective output waveforms;

measuring respective characteristics of the respective output waveforms;

determining a scaling factor and a stiffness associated with one or more biasing supports of the haptic actuator based on the measured respective characteristics of the respective output waveforms; and

calibrating the haptic device based on the determined scaling factor and stiffness to account for the distortions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the scaling factor accounts for one or more of:

a structure of the haptic device; and

a gap between a first component of the haptic device and the haptic actuator of the haptic device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the current profiles associated with the input waveforms comprises determining an amount of force output by the haptic device, wherein the amount of force is modeled as a differential equation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the scaling factor is quadratically related to peak amplitudes of the input waveforms.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the scaling factor further comprises determining a quadratic relationship of the stiffness of the one or more biasing supports and the peak amplitudes.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein determining the quadratic relationship of the stiffness of the one or more biasing supports and the peak amplitudes comprises obtaining a quadratic fit of peak amplitudes to stiffness values for the plurality of input waveforms.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more respective characteristics of the input waveforms include one or more of a peak amplitude, a duration, a frequency, a velocity, a displacement, and a momentum.

8. A haptic output device comprising:

a feedback surface;

an actuator linked with the feedback surface;

one or more biasing supports linked with the feedback surface; and

a controller operatively coupled to the actuator, wherein the controller is configured to;

receive parameters of a desired haptic output to be produced by the actuator on the feedback surface;

determine, using at least the received parameters, an input waveform associated with the desired haptic output;

determine a current profile associated with the input waveform, wherein the current profile includes a scaling factor associated with a stiffness of the one or more biasing supports;

provide the current profile to the haptic output device to generate an actual output waveform on the feedback surface;

measure differences between the actual output waveform and the desired haptic output; and

calibrate the actuator using at least the measured differences.

9. The haptic output device of claim 8, wherein the one or more biasing supports include a gel pad.

10. The haptic output device of claim 8, wherein the one or more characteristics of the input waveform includes one or more of a desired amplitude and a desired duration.

11. The haptic output device of claim 8, wherein the controller is further configured to superimpose an audio waveform on top of the input waveform.

12. The haptic output device of claim 8, wherein the feedback surface is a touch surface of the haptic output device.

13. The haptic output device of claim 8, wherein the scaling factor is quadratically related to a peak amplitude of the input waveform.

14. The haptic output device of claim 8, wherein the calibration of the actuator comprises determining a quadratic relationship between the stiffness of the one or more biasing supports and peak amplitudes of a plurality of sample input waveforms.

15. A method of providing a tactile output and an audio output on a haptic device for an electronic device, the method comprising:

receiving, by a controller of the electronic device, characteristics of a desired output waveform to be provided by the haptic device;

generating an input waveform based on the desired output waveform by providing the characteristics to an actuator model having calibration parameters based on a scaling factor and a stiffness of one or more biasing supports of the haptic device;

adding an audio waveform on the input waveform;

providing the input waveform having the audio waveform to the haptic device to generate the tactile output and the audio output that corresponds to the audio waveform.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the audio output is provided before the tactile output.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the haptic device is a touch sensitive device.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising calibrating the actuator by adjusting the calibration parameters.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein calibrating of the actuator comprises determining a quadratic relationship between the stiffness of the one or more biasing supports and peak amplitudes of a plurality of sample input waveforms.